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Razor clams can be found in Jersey but most of us only find their very thin broken shells along the beach.

A few years ago we were taping a show and trying to collect some bait. We were dragging a minnow seine in shallow water along a sandbar when something shot right between my feet like a torpedo. Ran after it until it settled on the bottom. It was a razor clam that was jetting itself through the water. Once it hit the bottom it stuck it's long foot into the sand to pull itself upright then just vanished into the sand. It went through the sand like it was liquid. We dug it out and placed it back on the bottom and it did it again. Found out that it's foot acts just like a jackhammer and moves so quickly that it turns the sandy bottom into quicksand. Amazing to see.

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Razor clams can be found in Jersey but most of us only find their very thin broken shells along the beach.

A few years ago we were taping a show and trying to collect some bait. We were dragging a minnow seine in shallow water along a sandbar when something shot right between my feet like a torpedo. Ran after it until it settled on the bottom. It was a razor clam that was jetting itself through the water. Once it hit the bottom it stuck it's long foot into the sand to pull itself upright then just vanished into the sand. It went through the sand like it was liquid. We dug it out and placed it back on the bottom and it did it again. Found out that it's foot acts just like a jackhammer and moves so quickly that it turns the sandy bottom into quicksand. Amazing to see.

Sadly those seem to have died off along with the soft shells in the spot. Curious to see how and when it rebounds from whatever happened.

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A friend of mine who is getting up there in years loves to clam and he uses his brain more than his back. Instead of blind raking he uses spiked garden cultivating spikes and just walks around. Clams are usually just below the surface and he feels them with the spikes when they come into contact.

They don't do any damage to the clams and since he can target them exactly he just uses one of these to pull the clam out.

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Was off the island this afternoon and on my return I pulled off the side of Rt 47 to look around. Mussels are incredible animals. found these guys fifty feet off the road and they are there half out of the mud all winter long and survive. How many critters can sit there exposed to sub zero temps for short or long stretches and survive. Incredible.

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Was off the island this afternoon and on my return I pulled off the side of Rt 47 to look around. Mussels are incredible animals. found these guys fifty feet off the road and they are there half out of the mud all winter long and survive. How many critters can sit there exposed to sub zero temps for short or long stretches and survive. Incredible.

Some of those things spend way too much time baking in the summer sun to be harvested. I always try to find the ones that are still underwater at low tide.